Continual self-monitoring of one’s behaviours, mannerisms, beliefs, and ideas.ġ8. Also, work place absenteeism or reduced productivity.ġ7. School truancy or dropping out of school. Shame or depression defensiveness anger or bitterness.ġ6. Increased fear and withdrawal from friend and relatives.ġ5. Attempts to pass as heterosexual, sometimes marrying someone of the other sex to gain social approval or in hope of ‘being cured’.ġ4. Becoming psychologically abused or abusive or remaining in an abusive relationship.ġ3.
Projection of prejudice onto another target group.ġ2. Sometimes distancing by engaging in homophobic behaviours – ridicule, harassment, verbal or physical attacks on other LGB people.ġ1. Contempt for those that are not like ourselves or contempt for those who seem like ourselves. Denial that homophobia, heterosexism, biphobia or sexism are serious social problems.ġ0. Contempt for those at earlier stages of the coming out process.Ġ9. Contempt for the more open or obvious members of the LGBT community.Ġ8. Under-achievement or even over-achievement as a bid for acceptance.Ġ6. Engaging in obsessive thinking and/or compulsive behaviours.Ġ5. Attempts to alter or change your sexual your orientation.Ġ4. Denial of your sexual orientation to yourself and others.Ġ2. Internalised homophobia manifests itself in varying ways that can be linked to mental health. It is during these formative years when people are coming to understand and acknowledge their sexual orientation that internalised homophobia can really affect a person. Research carried out in Northern Ireland into the needs of young LGBT people in 2003 revealed that the average age for men to realise their sexual orientation was 12, yet the average age they actually confided in someone was 17. You, like many lesbian, gay and bisexual people, may have hidden your sexual orientation for a long time. Some LGB people suffer from mental distress as a result.Ī general sense of personal worth and also a positive view of your sexual orientation are critical for your mental health. Hearing and seeing negative depictions of LGB people can lead us to internalise, or take in, these negative messages. Internalised homophobia and oppression happens to gay, lesbian and bisexual people, and even heterosexuals, who have learned and been taught that heterosexuality is the norm and “correct way to be”.